Kelly Hayes
Orlando Democratic Rep. Daisy Morales has announced plans to reintroduce legislation to create an Active Shooter Alert System in Florida in response to the recent New York City subway shooting.
Morales introduced the legislation during the 2022 Legislative Session. The bill, HB 1271, would require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to implement an alert system to be activated on the report of an active shooter. The alert system would then notify residents within a 50-mile radius of the shooter’s location. The bill would also require the Florida Department of Transportation to establish a plan for providing relevant information to the public within the 50-mile radius using their existing dynamic message signs.
“We know that in active shooter situations, notification and response times are critical to saving lives. This Active Shooter Alert System creates a notification if there is an active shooter situation in an area of Florida. The idea with the warning system is to model it after emergency alerts used to notify people of abducted children (AMBER Alerts), missing seniors (Silver Alerts) or when members of law enforcement are critically injured (Blue Alert),” Morales said in a statement.
Morales plans to meet with state law enforcement officials, Sheriffs’ Association and the Police Chiefs Association in refining the measure ahead of the next Legislative Session.
The goal of the legislation is to give law enforcement an important tool that could prove to be life-saving in the event of an active shooter is on the run — a situation recently seen during the NYC subway shooting. There, suspect Frank James, 62, opened fire and unleashed smoke bombs in a train full of morning commuters. He was not immediately caught, leading to a manhunt focusing on downtown Manhattan.
The rampage left 10 people with gunshot wounds, all of whom are expected to survive.
Morales’ previous legislation never reached a committee hearing, but was assigned to three committees.
